Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has called for the Electricity Minister, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, to be fired.
Malema has issued a dire warning that South Africa could face a complete electricity grid failure within the next two weeks – with the nation expected to be plunged into darkness.
It comes as Eskom imposes Stages 4 and Stage 6 rolling blackouts.
Malema addressed the media on Monday, following the EFF’s Central Command Team meeting.
“We don’t support the Minister of Electricity [Kgosientso Ramokgopa]. He must go. He is being paid a lot of money that we do not have. The appointment of the Minister of Electricity was a bluff. It was [President Cyril] Ramaphosa trying to show us that he is doing something about the electricity crisis when he was not doing anything.”
“The biggest achievement Sputla has achieved since he arrived there, was to go to all power stations. How can that be an achievement? After those visits, do we have electricity? No, the situation has worsened,” added Malema.
VIDEO | EFF Media briefing:
Unemployment expected to rise
Meanwhile, analysts anticipate that unemployment would have risen slightly in the first quarter of the year due to economic constraints and low business confidence resulting from the load shedding crisis.
Their comments come as Statistics South Africa is expected to release the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the first quarter of this year.
The official unemployment rate decreased from 32,9% in the third quarter of last year to 32,7% in the fourth quarter of 2022.
According to the expanded definition of unemployment, the rate of unemployed people remained high in the fourth quarter of 2022, at 42.6%.
VIDEO: Unemployment numbers out on Tuesday
